Spotify announces a new podcast format with pictures

January 19, 2018

On Jan 17 we reported on Spotify's aim, in 2018, to become a "podcast destination". Today, Spotify announces Spotlight, which adds visual layers to podcasting. "Spotlight gives fans a deeper insight to their favorite artists, playlists, books, publishers and more by offering contextual visual elements, such as photos, video and text, that appear as users move through each episode."

Spotify also announced a set of launch partners: BuzzFeed News, Cheddar, Crooked Media, Lenny Letter, Gimlet Media, Genius, The Minefield Girl, Refinery29 and Uninterrupted; as well as Spotify’s own original series.

Bloomberg reports that this is likely a play for the $18 billion spent on advertising in the US.

You can already offer contextual visual elements in podcasts using chapter points. We looked at podcast app support for this feature last month and discovered that only 6.2% of podcast plays would be on an app that supports them.

If you're using Skype for long-distance interviews, you might want to consider Discord, according to this tech piece. Discord appears to be quite configurable for internet audio, and guests just need a compatible browser - anything except Safari, essentially. (It's in use in this episode of Mac Geek Gab - start at 1'40").